Countplus acquires Accurium

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

20 October 2021

Publicly-listed financial services group, CountPlus is acquiring Challenger’s actuarial certification and education services group, Accurium.

Countplus announced today that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Accurium for $9 million as part of a highly strategic transaction which would provide the company with the opportunity to expand its core service delivery to accounting firms and self-managed superannuation fund professionals across Australia.

The acquisition is the second transaction under the CountPlus ‘core-related’ strategy to invest into activities that are concerned with inputs and/or outputs in core, firm-related activities and that have a regulatory aspect or that enable/enhance core firm activities.

The acquisition announced today follows the May 2021 announcement of a 51% acquisition of Wealth Axis, a paraplanning, technology and administration services business.

CountPlus will hold an 85% shareholding in Accurium with Key Management Personnel holding 15%, aligning with the CountPlus Owner Driver-Partner (OD-P™) strategy. Douglas McBirnie will become Managing Director of Accurium, and all current serving team members will be retained by the business.

Commenting on the transaction, Countplus chief executive and managing director, Matthew Rowe said CountPlus had a strong platform to integrate and grow the Accurium business and to leverage the CountPlus competitive advantage within the accounting and SMSF administration service sector in Australia.

“Accurium sits naturally within our network and has a subscriber base of some 3,000 accounting firms and 11,000 SMSF professionals who require the efficiencies of online, automated actuarial certification and supplementary education and technical services,” he said.

“The Accurium business is an online service provider, is highly automated, using proprietary actuarial calculators. It is technology-enabled with an ability to scale up as an ageing population transition their SMSF’s to retirement phase. Accurium estimates the current addressable market for SMSF Actuarial certificates is circa 140,000 funds.

“Like CountPlus, Accurium is a reputable business with a values-led team seeking to make a difference to clients. We look forward to welcoming the team to CountPlus and to realising the growth and earnings potential of the core-related Accurium business,” Rowe said.